LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands… the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, the Holy Bible).

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IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT WHETHER MAR GRADUATED FROM WHARTON OR NOT? Is it really important whether Mar Roxas graduated or not from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania? To me, that is not really important. What is really important is this: whether one is a graduate of this or that school, what matters is his heart and spirit for service.

If he has a heart and spirit that strive to help our countrymen get out of the poverty and destituteness they have been languishing in for so many years already, he should be given a chance to lead this country and prove his worth.

For all I care, even if an aspiring president does not have a degree, he can still be a good leader if he knows what to do to help many of our poor people attain some degree of economic upturn, and allow them to live a more decent life, or a life that is no longer anchored on begging, criminality, and lack of spirituality.

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WHOEVER WINS IN 2016 WILL HAVE ONLY SIX YEARS: What is lost in the growing frenzy over the 2016 presidential elections is the fact that whoever wins next year will not be president forever, but would be serving only for six years. Whether it is Mar Roxas, or Digong Duterte, or Miriam Santiago, or Grace Poe, the next president will have a very limited time to be the leader of this country.

Consequently, the most important question to ask these candidates now is this: in this short span of six years, what are you going to do to lift our people from poverty, stop criminality and corruption, and put the Philippines on the road to real change?

The presidencies that have come and gone since 1986 have shown us that there is not much that any president can do within a period of six years to really transform the country. Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo have all gone, and the current Aquino will also be gone in a few days, yet we have remained poor and divisive despite claims by each of these presidents that they succeeded to turn around the country.

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ALL RP PRESIDENTS WERE FAILURES: Indeed, all our presidents are failures. And from all indications, whoever gets elected in 2016 will be another failure. No change substantial enough to propel this country towards economic boom had been introduced by anyone of them, and the incoming presidency would appear to be no exception.

So, what should be the formula to initiate much needed changes in our country? My take is this: the next president, side by side with all the grandiose plans for the development of the Philippines, should strive to entice Filipinos to return to God by a daily reading of, and obedience to, the Bible or any other Holy Book for those who are not Christians.

This is not going to be an impossible or a novel task. Even now, the judicial branch of government, led by the Supreme Court, is now inculcating spiritually and deeper faith in God by daily recitations, in all courts of the Philippines, of an ecumenical prayer which recognizes a Supreme Being who can touch hearts of litigants to aspire for truth, justice, peace, and righteousness. It can be done. It should be done!